Electronic Tools

This week we went exploring at the SPOD - exploring the world of maps for RPGs. Maps have been a treasured part of the hobby since the very beginning, when Dave Arneson took some basic graph paper, crafted a dungeon, and had his friends explore it in search of the daughter of the Elven King. That, my friends, was the true birth of the classic RPG experience as we now know it. To that end, here's a bunch of map-oriented products for the physical and virtual tables.

Social games are all the buzz thanks to a raft of interviews and marketing pushes by Hasbro and Mattel touting the benefits of "social gaming." Long before these game juggernauts discovered the term, tabletop role-players were gathering around a table and playing games. But the new kids on the block may still be able to teach tabletop gamers a few things.

If you're a fan of the Roll20 virtual tabletop, and a fan of the ZEITGEIST adventure path, and a fan of 5E, you're at the intersection of an awesome Venn Diagram! You can now get the ZEITGEIST prelude adventure, Bonds of Forced Faith, on Roll20, along with an NPC token pack.

Some exciting news from SmiteWorks, the makers of the Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop! "SmiteWorks USA LLC is extremely happy to announce the latest new game system supported by Fantasy Grounds - W.O.I.N. This first installment features N.E.W., EN Publishing's very own game system full of aliens, cybernetics, space ships and atronomical exploration!"

Many people have been asking for official D&D PDFs, and WotC has been addressing the need for electronic reference materials at the table in various ways. According to Mashable, WotC is releasing a D&D Reader App this fall. It's not a PDF, but it's basically a D&D-specific Kindle-esque app for iOS and Android. Mashable reports that "Each book is broken up into different sections. So with, say, the Player's Handbook, you can tap on little thumbnails in your library to check out the introduction, a step-by-step guide to character creation, a rundown of races, individual sections for each character class, equipment, and all the other pieces that, together, form the D&D Player's Handbook."

The kind folks over at Smiteworks have sent along some sneak peeks at the Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop version of the upcoming D&D adventure Tomb of Annihilation. It'll be available from Smiteworks and Steam on September 8th, the same day it appears in some local game stores (and 11 days before it appears in most!) Take a look!

Fantasy Grounds has been busy working on the Starfinder package for its Virtual Tabletop (VTT). They've sent out a few "sneak peek" screenshots to show their progress. "John (aka Moon Wizard) is busy working on the the underlying mechanic changes from the PFRPG ruleset and Doug (aka ddavison) is working on the re-skinning and graphics that you see [below]."

Hello everyone, Darryl here with help me help me we went from no news to too much news and I don’t know what to do! Gen Con, Diana Jones, ENnies, highly anticipated products released, all new products and licenses announced, it’s just too much!

D&D Beyond, the official online toolkit for 5th Edition D&D, is now live - just in time for Gen Con! With a character builder, online rules compendium, digital character sheet, and more, the software has been in beta testing for a while. D&D's relationship with electronic tools has never been an easy one -- Master Tools, Gleemax, DungeonScape all being failed initiatives - but D&D Beyond looks like it might be the one which actually breaks that curse.

This week from EN Publishing we have a new plug-in location in the Over the Next Hill series over on EN5ider, the 5th Edition Patreon, a look at how the legal system works in a fantasy medieval world filled with magic over on TRAILseeker, the Pathfinder Patreon, and a monster-creation system (and web app!) for GMs who need a little help creating NPCs and critters for the What's OLD is NEW system - along with an accompanying web app which does all the work for you!

Dry erase boards. Flip mats. Graph paper. Lego. Theater of the Mind. All of these are valid, tried-and-true methods of tracking movement/combat in Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs. While I've employed all of these in the past, nothing has worked better for my games than the dungeon tile.

Here at EN World, I'mlookingatall-agestabletoprole-playinggames, board games, andcard games. Do they engage the players at the kids' gaming table? Would they cut it at the adults' table? Are they genuinely fun for every age? Amazing Tales is "a game for children who love adventures". Martin Lloyd's RPG is designed for a GM and one or two young players, and includes the rules, GM tips for young gamers, four settings with adventure hooks, and more.

The campaign that our group will be starting next week (and that I wrote a little bit about here last week) got me to thinking about martial arts role-playing games in general. I am probably by no means an aficionado of martial arts movies, or media, but I have enjoyed some Chinese martial arts films over the years (my first college roommate was/is a martial artist and fan of the movies). Plus, I am more of a fan of contemporary settings, and unfortunately the number of games that combine these two things are few. However, today I am going to talk about the Tianxia: Blood, Silk and Jade role-playing game from Jack Norris and Vigilance Press.

In Mythras, player characters are tied to family, village, and cults and their quests change the world around them and influence the direction of society’s growth. Mythras is mythic in scope and the PCs create legends with their adventures. This review covers a newcomer’s overall impression of Mythras.